Background: The place I work is a TV repair shop. It used to be an electronics repair shop, but that place closed and we bought it. The name has changed, the staff is different, the place has been remodeled and you even go though a different door.

fin

A customer walked in just as the phone rang. I said "pardon me," and answered the phone.

The guy who called wanted to know if we repaired speakers still. I explained to him that the old repair shop that was here did repair speakers and radios, but sold the business to us 2 years ago and now we only repair TVs. The guy thanked me and we hung up. All very polite.

The guy who walked in was RIGHT. THERE. the entire time I was on the phone and not making any effort to hide the fact that he was listening. Which, whatever. It was a business phone call and I didn't expect anything else.

So, I turn to him, apologize for the wait and ask what I can help him with. He puts a boom box from the 1990s, complete with dual tape decks, on my desk and tells me that it's not working. I repeat what I told the guy on the phone 3 minutes earlier with the guy in front of me staring at me. So what does he ask?

"But, can't you just work on this one? I got it repaired here before!"

*facepalm*

So, again I repeat that it was the old business that did that and we only work on TVs. He looks at me blankly and eventually sulks his way out.

"Here" being a relative term....same building, but everything else has changed. If Starbucks bought out a McDonald's and put their usual coffee shop equipment in place, would he go in there and ask for a Big Mac?

Yeah. He probably would. "I got it here before!"

__________________"There's a day that's comin' when they'll pull the blind - cause the season's gunnin' for me, darling...it just comes down to time."

Some time ago I bought on eBuy a Kowa/Graflex Century 35 rangefinder camera with a sticky shutter. Inside the film compartment, there was a sticker with the name of a camera service shop in Coral Gables, FL, stating that they had repaired it in July 1976.

For the hell of it I went looking for info on this company. Surprisingly I found that the place is still in business, but it is now a photo studio only, and doesn't do repairs anymore.

Still called them and asked. The girl who answered the phone didn't even know that her boss used to be a camera repairman... she probably hadn't even been born in July 1976.

Wound up sending it to my favorite camera repairlady in California. She did a great job on it, and I broke it two weeks later by dropping it two feet onto a rug...

Last edited by Shalom; 04-14-2011 at 04:54 AM.
Reason: coral gables, not palm beach, I misremembered